viewcli 0.1.0

Universal tabular data viewer CLI — view any file in a fast terminal UI

view-data

Universal tabular data viewer — open any CSV, JSON, Parquet, or Excel file in a fast, interactive terminal UI with sort, filter, search, and SQL — all in one command.

view file.csv
view data.json --sql "SELECT name, age FROM data WHERE age > 30"
view results.parquet
view sheet.xlsx
view --sql "SELECT * FROM 'a.csv' JOIN 'b.json' USING(id)"

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Install

# From source
pip install .

# Or with pipx (recommended — isolated environment)
pipx install .

Requires Python 3.10+.

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Usage

view <file>                          Open a file in the TUI
view <file> --format csv             Force format detection
view <file> --head 1000              Load only first 1 000 rows
view <file> --sql "SELECT …"         Run SQL before viewing (table alias: data)
view --sql "SELECT … FROM 'a.csv'"   Cross-file SQL (no positional file needed)
view --version
view --help

Supported formats

Extension	Format
.csv, .tsv, .txt	CSV / TSV (delimiter auto-detected)
.json	JSON array-of-objects
.jsonl, .ndjson	Newline-delimited JSON
.parquet	Apache Parquet
.xlsx, .xls	Excel (first sheet)

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Keybindings

Navigation

Key	Action
↑ ↓ ← →	Move cursor
Page Up / Page Down	Scroll by page
Home / End	First / last column
g	Jump to first row
G (Shift+G)	Jump to last row
Enter	Expand full cell value

Sorting

Key	Action
s	Sort by current column (asc → desc → clear)

Filtering

Key	Action
/	Open filter bar
Esc	Clear all filters

Filter syntax:

name=Alice          exact match
age>30              numeric comparison
city~New.*          regex match
age>=18 city~NY     AND (space-separated)

Search

Key	Action
Ctrl+F	Open search (all visible cells)
n	Next match
N (Shift+N)	Previous match
Esc	Clear search

Columns

Key	Action
c	Open column show/hide picker
<	Shrink current column
>	Grow current column

SQL

Key	Action
:	Open SQL prompt (table alias: data)

Example: : SELECT city, COUNT(*) AS n FROM data GROUP BY city ORDER BY n DESC

Export & Other

Key	Action
e	Export current view (CSV or JSON)
?	Show help overlay
q / Esc	Quit

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SQL Examples

# Filter before viewing
view employees.csv --sql "SELECT * FROM data WHERE salary > 100000"

# Aggregate
view orders.csv --sql "SELECT product, SUM(amount) as total FROM data GROUP BY product"

# Cross-file join (no positional file)
view --sql "SELECT a.name, b.order_count FROM 'customers.csv' a JOIN 'orders.json' b ON a.id = b.customer_id"

# Nested JSON — access struct fields with dot notation
view events.json --sql "SELECT meta.page, meta.duration_ms FROM data WHERE event='click'"

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Screenshot

(placeholder — run view tests/fixtures/sample.csv to see it live)

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Development

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Generate test fixtures
python tests/fixtures/create_fixtures.py

# Run
view tests/fixtures/sample.csv
view tests/fixtures/sample.json --sql "SELECT id, title FROM data LIMIT 5"